Saturday October 22, 2011 will be a day to remember in Papermaps history.

Back during our (van)adventures we learned (via text from Toronto promoter Dan Wolovick) that Halifax Pop Explosion decided to relocate our second show due to the Occupy Halifax protesters who had set up camp in the original outdoor venue, the Grand Parade Square.  The new venue would be the spacious Olympic Community Hall.  The only hitch being that the CBC had to take over the building by 4pm for the live broadcast of the Chad VanGaalen show, therefore the whole show got shifted three hours back and we would be on at noon! “No problem,” we said although I was a bit worried.  As it turned out the HPX staff did an amazing job alerting the public (this was a Free all ages show).  Word spread throughout town quite quickly.  It didn’t hurt (of course) that the headlining acts were Montreal’s Stars and Plants and Animals.

We arrived at the venue for our 10:30 AM load in.  We had a long wait before we could set up and sound check because we were the first act (first acts always check last).  Luckily, the Stars had sound checked the day before, which made things much simpler for the remaining 3 bands.  Nevertheless, I was a little worried that we wouldn’t get enough time for a proper check.  Finally at around 11:30 (just before the 11:45 doors time) we got on the stage for set up.  We are a complicated band, despite only having four members for this show.  Before we were finished our sound check the stage manager told me “there’s about five hundred kids waiting outside, we need to start letting them in,”  and I was like: “that’s fine, we don’t mind.”

When about three hundred people (maybe more) show up to a show that has had a time/venue change  (the day of) you want to give them your all and that’s exactly what we did.  Our set may have been short, but we made up for that in energy! It’s hard to believe this was happening at lunch time!  We love you Halifax!

We played a shorter set than usual and had great fun doing it.  More people arrived as we made it to the half-way point and played our first single, Reunion.

Our last song was You are My Gallows.  By this point the crowd was at it’s peak.  We had to drop two songs from our set list, but it didn’t matter because we were very happy to be there!

After the show we needed to chill out and get some proper lunch.  We found a great Vegan restaurant across the way from the Hall.  We returned to the Olympic Hall to watch Plants and Animals give it and then retired back to the hotel for more rest and dinner. Later that evening, Lesley and I paid a visit to the Occupy Halifax site (our former venue) and found the people there to be very friendly, organized and peaceful.  We were glad that everything worked out in the end.

Later that night we returned to the Hall again to check out my friends, the Meligrove Band, Miracle Fortress and Chad Vangalaan.  I did a short interview with Graham Wright for his CBC3 Radio program Radiograham. It was good times.  This year’s Halifax Pop Explosion was the best yet! We look forward to next year!

The next day we got up early for the 20 hour drive back to Toronto! If you are following these posts and live in the Toronto area, come to our next show!  Saturday October 29!  At Rancho Relaxo.  It’s Dan Wolivick’s Birthday and a sort of  homecoming for us!